The Sounds of Silence
by jak981125
Summary: Faye's worst nightmare comes true. Lau is captured by the Red Dragons and given a choice: rejoin the syndicate or die. The end of season 1 of the Lau saga.


Session 8 THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE by jak981125  
  
Note: This story is part of a series. It will make more sense if you read the previous sessions.  
  
In the Martian town of Tharsis, on the west side of town, the highest ranking members of the Red Dragons organization gathered. Ten top ranking guards entered a briefing room on the top floor, followed by Akira himself. Akira removed a sword that he had strapped to his back and placed it on the table before sitting down. All but one of the guards sat down as soon as he did. The guard that was still standing addressed Akira.  
  
"Sir, we have concluded our investigation."  
  
"And what have you concluded?" asked Akira.  
  
The guard turned out the lights and turned on a holographic imager in the middle of the table. The image it projected was the mistaken bounty offer on Lau. "This projection is completely inaccurate as you can see," said the guard. "A bounty hunter who hadn't read it carefully enough could have easily believed this was valid."  
  
"So you're saying that Lau might not have faked his own kidnapping, is that it?" asked Akira.  
  
"Sir, we're quite certain that he didn't," replied the guard. "We have even identified the two who took him. Not only are they known bounty hunters, but they were former companions of Spike Spiegel."  
  
Akira was silent for a moment. He rubbed the spot on his chest where Lau had shot him. "So, it would appear we were mistaken," he said at last.  
  
"What are your instructions regarding this matter?" asked another one of the guards seated at the table.  
  
Akira thought for a moment. "We will give him one chance to live," he replied. "I think I'm being more than generous, all things considered. You will re-acquire Lau and you will bring him to me. That is all." Akira picked up his sword from the table and walked out of the room.  
  
The Bebop was still on Ganymede. After having collected the bounty on Roscoe, they were in better financial shape. Faye managed to convince Jet to join her at the dog races. Jet had owned a greyhound as a younger man and thought he might be able to spot a winner if he got a look at the dogs. He knew exactly what he was doing and the two of them made quite a pile of money.  
  
Lau on the other hand decided to go catch a movie. It was supposed to be that year's great action feature. Lau was bored to tears with the whole thing. When he noticed he could see the zipper on the costume of a space monster on screen, he checked his watch. "Only 28 minutes into the show," he said to himself. "I can still get my money back." He snuck out of the theater and headed to the ticket counter to get a refund. That's when he noticed that the ticket counter was being robbed.  
  
"Nothing personal, but I can't leave any witnesses, pop," said the robber to the old man at the ticket counter. Now this poor fellow looked like he would die from terror. Lau was watching this from over by the snack counter which was now closed. He picked up a steel napkin dispenser and threw it at the robber. It struck the guy in the head. Lau charged at him and kicked the gun out of his hand and then kicked it far enough away from him where he couldn't get to it. The robber threw a punch at him, which he easily dodged. He struck back with his left forearm, knocking the robber unconscious. He dragged him over to a nearby handrail and cuffed him to it.  
  
Lau walked over to the man behind the ticket counter who was still shaking. "It's OK, that punk can't hurt you now. Call the police and tell them..." Lau never finished. He saw a reflection in the glass on the ticket booth. There were some syndicate guys approaching. Spike would have spotted them much sooner but Lau had not.  
  
"All right Lau, don't try to be difficult," one of them said to him. Two of them handcuffed Lau and a third took his gun. They lead him outside to a waiting sedan.  
  
Back on the Bebop, Faye and Jet were getting worried when Lau hadn't shown up. "He didn't even call," said Faye. "That's not like him at all. His movie was supposed to get out three hours ago."  
  
Jet's communicator rang. "That's probably him right now," said Jet as he answered the call. He was wrong. It was an old cop buddy of his named Conrad.  
  
"Jet, I have some bad news," he said. "A bunch of our guys just got dispatched over to a movie theater. It's your partner. A bunch of syndicate guys grabbed him."  
  
Faye grabbed the communicator out of Jet's hand. "Who?! Which syndicate?! They didn't hurt him, did they?!"  
  
Jet took the communicator back. He was trying to stay calm, but he was frightened too. "Conrad, it wasn't the Blue Snake, was it?" he asked. Jet was worried that this might be payback for Roscoe.  
  
"No, it was the Red Dragons," replied Conrad. Jet and Faye exchanged terrified glances. "It doesn't look like they harmed him. They forced him to get into a car with them."  
  
At that moment, Lau was sitting in the cargo hold of a Red Dragons cruiser as it headed towards Mars. He probably would have been scared had he been awake, but they had tranquilized him.  
  
Back on the Bebop, Jet was punching in a course for Tharsis. Faye sat on the couch with her hands folded. Her face was white as chalk. She suddenly got up and ran to the bathroom. She had to throw up.  
  
Lau woke up, only to find himself being dragged into the new Red Dragons headquarters. He looked around in a daze and he saw former friends of his everywhere. Not too many of them seemed to have any sign of sympathy for him in their eyes. What they did have was hostility. To them, he was a traitor. Lau was taken into an elevator and then taken upstairs into the lair of the Van. There he saw Akira and the other elders gathered.  
  
At that point, Lau had pretty much given up all hope of survival and figured he was going to say what he was going to say. "So, do I get to talk this time?" he asked coolly.  
  
Akira frowned. "Don't act cocky Lau. You're in no position to do so. You have no reason to speak. We know what really happened. We do not hold you accountable for your absence nor for the death of a few of our people."  
  
Lau was almost relieved to hear that, but he knew that if they had brought him here, he was not out of danger.  
  
"Our purpose in bringing you here is to let you choose life or death," said Akira.  
  
"Well that's a pretty obvious choice," replied Lau.  
  
"To live, you must agree to re-join the Clan immediately. If you do, your former status will be restored to you."  
  
"And if I refuse (as if I didn't know the answer to this one)?" replied Lau.  
  
"If you already know then why ask? You have twenty-four hours to make a decision."  
  
"I don't need twenty-four seconds," replied Lau angrily. "The answer's no. Now kill me and get it over with."  
  
Akira rose to his feet in anger but sat back down. "I'll give you some time to think it over, anyway," he replied. "And if you are set on refusing, then you can consider this time I'm giving you as a time to dread your death. Take him to the Chamber."  
  
The Bebop was orbiting Mars and approaching Tharsis when alarms started going off. The Dragons had already expected Faye and Jet to make an appearance. Several small ships attacked the Bebop. "Oh great, a welcoming committee!" growled Jet.  
  
"Let's give them a little welcoming party of our own," replied Faye. Faye boarded the Redtail and Jet got into the Swordfish, since it was stronger in battle than the Hammerhead. The two flew out and faced their adversaries head-on.  
  
Back on Tharsis, Lau was taken to the new Chamber. It looked remarkably like the old one. They chained his wrists to the wall as they had done to Vicious and left him alone in silent darkness. Lau remembered when he had sent traitors in the old guard to Vicious's rescue when they were about to execute him. The Van had been slaughtered in that fight. Lau couldn't help but wonder if this was some sort of cosmic retribution for the role he had played in their deaths.  
  
Jet and Faye continued to shoot it out with the syndicate ships. Only minor hull damage had been inflicted upon the Bebop. Faye skillfully dodged the fire of two ships on her tail. Jet shot one of them down and she nailed the other one. Jet tried an old trick he had seen Lau pull off once. He flew head-on towards a group of ships. Sure enough, four of them crashed into one another in the confusion. One of Faye's thrusters was stuck but she managed to shoot down two more. Then Jet got another two. The ships that were left knew they were outmatched. They sent a message to Mars warning them that the Bebop was still coming.  
  
In the chamber, Lau's legs ached horribly. He had been standing for three hours. He was very tired, but obviously could not sleep in that position. He also had to try to pull on his shackles to keep his arms as bent as possible. Otherwise it would have been like crucifixion. His chest muscles would have cramped up, rendering him unable to breathe. He also had a very full bladder. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Vicious for having to go through this. But at least Vicious had a fairly good idea he was going to be rescued. Lau did not. He tried very hard not to feel sorry for himself. He prayed silently that if he was to face judgment at his death, that his current way of life would matter more than his old one. It was so dark and quiet, Lau could barely stand it.  
  
The Bebop started to touch down in a Tharsis harbor. As soon as it had docked, the Red Dragon vessels that had fled, along with two watercrafts, attacked them. Jet had foreseen this happening. He had gone back to the Bebop after the fight but told Faye to hover above him and wait so she could cover him if they were ambushed. That's just what she did. The boats were sunk immediately. The aircraft made another attempt to hit her but even with a damaged thruster, she was far too good for them. Not a single aircraft made it out of there intact. Faye landed back on the Bebop. She and Jet had to plan quickly for how they were going to try to rescue Lau. They tried not to think about the odds against them.  
  
Back in the chamber, the silence was nearly maddening. Lau couldn't imagine how deaf people could stand it. That made him think of his late wife, Talia, who had been blind. He didn't know how she could always stay so sweet and so upbeat in her condition. He thought about all the times she had begged him and Vicious to get out of the Dragons. Tears ran down his face remembering her. He missed her so much. Well he would be re-united with her shortly anyway. Then he remembered Faye. He really did love her and hated the thought of what pain his death might cause her. He was glad none of the Dragons were here to see him blubbering like this. On second thought, he would have been glad to see or hear anyone at that point.  
  
Lo and behold, he got his wish. He heard someone approaching the chamber. The gate was closed but a side door was unlocked and in came a hood named Damien. Damien had not been a friend of Lau's when he was on the inside but he knew who he was. Damien signaled for him to remain silent. He checked outside one last time and then walked over to Lau. He produced a set of keys and unlocked the shackles. The very first thing Lau did was to hurry over to a corner and relieve himself. He was embarrassed but he couldn't help it. He'd been holding it in for hours. "Sorry about that," he whispered. Damien put his finger to his lips and signaled him to follow quietly.  
  
He lead Lau into a hallway. They crept down the corridor quiet as mice. They went into a meeting room and shut the door. It was safe to talk now. Meeting rooms were soundproofed and swept for bugs twice a week.  
  
"Damien, I'm extremely grateful, but why are you betraying the Clan for my sake?" asked Lau.  
  
"Last night, did you prevent an old man from getting killed in a robbery on Ganymede?" asked Damien.  
  
"Yeah. That's when they caught me," replied Lau.  
  
"That old man was my father," said Damien. "Last night he called me and begged me to help you. I may be loyal to the Clan, but a man has to have his priorities. My dad comes first. Now I'm going to try to get us up to the roof. I have a shuttle waiting up there."  
  
"They'll know it was you," said Lau. "Once you do this, there's no going back."  
  
"I know, but I owe you," replied Damien. "I can't guarantee we won't run into trouble, so take this." He handed Lau a Glock and two spare magazines. Lau knew he'd never see his Leuger again, so he accepted the weapon gladly. The two snuck out of the room and made their way towards the stairs that lead to the roof.  
  
They hadn't gone more than ninety feet before they ran into a group of guards. Lau and Damien drew their weapons and gunned them down. They started running. They knew that everyone on the top floor had probably heard the noise. As they ran, Damien attached a bomb to the wall. When a patrol showed up behind them, he pushed a button on his watch and the bomb exploded.  
  
The Swordfish and Redtail were flying over the west side of Tharsis as quickly as they could towards the Red Dragon headquarters. Jet was fairly sure that they would be keeping Lau in the Chamber, and that they would find that on the top floor. They had planned to fly up to the top level and shoot out the glass on a set of windows. Then Faye would pull up alongside, get out of the Redtail and jump inside. Neither one of them figured they had a great chance but they weren't about to let Lau die. Syndicates usually performed executions at dawn, so they figured Lau was still alive since dawn was still an hour away.  
  
Lau and Damien fought their way through one more set of guards and then approached the door to the stairway leading to the roof. That too was guarded. One of the guards shot Damien in the arm and Lau took him out. Damien managed to hit the other one. They ran up the stairs to the roof. The shuttle was right out there. They were so close. Then the worst possible thing happened. The shuttle exploded. As soon as the guard had realized what they were up to, they activated the self-destruct mechanism by remote. They were trapped!  
  
Within seconds, guards came spilling out of the entry. Damien was killed in the crossfire. Lau dragged his body behind a utility shed and pulled one of those bombs out of Damien's pocket. He threw it at the guard. He hit the button on Damien's watch and took out every single aggressor. But now he was really trapped. Then things got much worse. Another shot rang out. It was Akira! He had climbed up the fire escape. His bullet grazed Lau's forehead. Any wound like that bleeds like crazy and Lau now had to worry about getting blood in his eyes. He and Akira exchanged fire for what seemed like an eternity. Then both of them ran out of ammo. Akira drew the sword on his back. It was not a katana, but a straight double- edged sword. He charged at Lau. He swung at him several times, but only managed to inflict a cut to his arm. Lau kicked the sword out of his hand. The two began to fight with their fists. Lau and Akira specialized in two different martial arts, so neither one had any clue what to expect from the other one. They were pretty evenly matched. Neither one of them seemed to be able to get the upper hand.  
  
Lau wound up getting kicked in the mouth pretty hard. It hurt him fairly badly and made him angry, bringing on a spurt of adrenaline. He threw a punch that Akira tried to block. Akira wound up with a broken arm for his trouble. He hit Lau in the gut, nearly making him vomit. The blow caused him to lower his head, and Akira wasted no time hitting him in the back of the skull. Lau retaliated by kicking him. He was aiming at the solar plexus, but aimed a little too high, hitting him in the ribs instead. The force was enough to knock Akira onto his back. As soon as he got up, Lau punched him, knocking him back down again. It was true that Akira was stronger, but Lau's metal hand was giving him a real edge in this fight. Akira struggled to get up one more time and Lau kicked him in the head with all his might. Akira was knocked completely unconscious.  
  
Lau had no time to celebrate. The guard couldn't get through the door because of the explosion, but pretty soon they figured out how Akira had gotten up there. Soon, they too started climbing up the fire escape. Lau dived over to where Damien lay. He pulled a grenade out of his pocket and tossed it at his attackers. That took out a few of them, but more were coming. Lau grabbed Damien's Glock from his hand. It was empty. Damien had one more magazine in his coat pocket. Lau had to conserve ammo at this point. The guard certainly didn't have that problem. What was worse was that some of them had machine guns.  
  
Lau figured this was probably it for him. Well, he figured that he went out fighting and he defeated Akira. He believed he could die proudly. He shot two more guards. He pulled out a cigarette, but his lighter had been taken away. More and more bullets were flying his way, and the burning shuttle had another explosion which caused flying debris to cut his face.  
  
That's when he heard the most welcome sound in the world. It was the Redtail. Faye and Jet had seen all that was happening on the roof. Faye opened fire and blasted right through the guards. She flew up to the roof and opened the cockpit. "Get in!" she yelled. Just then, more guards showed up on the other side of the roof. Faye had to break off and go after them. Lau ran to the edge of the roof and saw the Swordfish. He was tempted to jump onto the top of it, but it was moving way too fast. Jet moved in to take on the newcomers. Faye backed off and made another attempt to rescue Lau. This time he got in. There wasn't a lot of room in the cockpit so they were very cramped. Lau was bleeding all over the place. Faye wanted to cry when she saw him.  
  
Jet's voice came over the radio. "Get him back to the Bebop right now! I'll handle these guys!" Faye didn't have to be told twice. She turned around and took off towards the harbor as quickly as she could get the Redtail to move. Jet fired back at the guard some more and took off too. He didn't notice Akira waking up. Akira had been hit so hard, he couldn't remember anything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. He had no clue as to why he was on the roof with all this fire and carnage around him.  
  
Jet and Faye didn't loose any time at all. The second they got back on board the Bebop they carried Lau inside and laid him on a couch. Then Jet started up the ship and instructed the auto pilot to leave the planet immediately.  
  
Faye held Lau's head in her arms and sobbed. "I thought I would lose you. Look what those bastards did to you!" Lau looked bad but his injuries were relatively minor. He sat up and held Faye in his arms until she stopped crying. Jet came back in.  
  
"Where are we headed?" asked Lau.  
  
"We're getting the hell out of here," replied Jet. "We're going to Venus and I am not taking you back to Mars ever, so don't ask."  
  
Lau was not at all thrilled at the prospect of going there but figured he should keep his mouth shut. Jet pulled out some rubbing alcohol and swabbed some on Lau's arm.  
  
"What are you doing? I'm not hurt there."  
  
"I know," replied Jet. "Just hold still." Before Lau knew what was going on, Jet stuck a needle in his arm.  
  
"Ow! What was that for?" asked Lau, rubbing his arm angrily.  
  
"That was a vaccination for Venus sickness. Me and Faye have already had ours." Lau decided not to complain. After all, Talia had been blinded by Venus sickness.  
  
Lau smiled at Faye and pulled her closer to him. "Gees, don't tell me you're feeling romantic right now!" exclaimed Faye.  
  
"Hey, I thought I was going to die," he replied. "I think the worst part was the isolation beforehand. I was so lonely. I thought about you a lot." Faye sat down and kissed the one part of his forehead that didn't have blood all over it.  
  
"I've never told anyone in my life that I loved them before, but I sure do love you," she said.  
  
"I love you too, Faye. And I have said that to someone before, so believe me when I say it."  
  
Lau told both Jet and Faye the story of how he was freed. They were impressed. "That reminds me of a story," said Jet. "This lady is traveling on a train with some hyper nephews and a niece. To settle them down, she tells them a story about a girl who was so good that everyone in town loved her. Thus when she fell into a pasture containing an angry bull she was saved by the townspeople. The kids were all too quick to point out how stupid that was. After all, wouldn't they have saved a rotten kid too?"  
  
"What's the point, Jet?" asked Faye.  
  
"These particular people we dealt with were not the kind of guys who would have rescued someone rotten. Probably they wouldn't have saved most good people either. Lau's one good deed saved his life."  
  
The Bebop floated through hyperspace towards Venus. There was no sign of any pursuit. Maybe they would never be able to go back to Mars, but who cares? Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Thus ends season one of Cowboy Bebop: The Lau Saga.  
  
HAVE YOU DONE A GOOD DEED TODAY?  
  
(c) 2004 Joseph Kerner jak981125@catholic.org  
  
Disclaimer: I did not create Cowboy Bebop. I wish I had, but I didn't. This is just fanfiction 


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